


Methane Skies

by bedfordfalls



Category: Smashing Pumpkins
Genre: Gen, Happy Ending, James/Billy but only if you squint, M/M, Nonbinary character implied ??, Today music video, this wasn’t supposed to be serious but now it is I guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-23
Updated: 2018-09-23
Packaged: 2019-07-16 01:44:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16075739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bedfordfalls/pseuds/bedfordfalls
Summary: None of them seemed human; they were something else, made from soft smiles and congealed sugar and melted eyes.





	Methane Skies

He had been driving for several days through the wasteland before a figure appeared in the barren, technicolor distance, just a soft silhouette on the side of the road. Billy turned the static-filled music down to a soft hum, slowed the truck, pulled up. 

“Hey.”

A silence. Billy tilted his head slightly. 

“What’s your name?”

“James.” Nothing else. 

“What are you doing out here, James?”

“Same thing you are.”

He smiled, and Billy got the sudden impression that he already knew everything Billy had to say. There was something comforting about the thought, instant familiarity, lack of pressure, as if words were a luxury James chose when to indulge. 

Billy stayed quiet as James climbed on. 

———

They drove for several hours. James rolled the window down so the wind blew his hair around his face in an auburn cloud, covering his eyes. Billy glanced at him every few minutes. 

“You’re wearing a dress.”

“Yeah.”

Billy took one hand off the wheel, stretched it out the driver’s side door to feel the air. 

“Why?”

James shrugged. 

“Are you a girl?”

“Doesn’t work like that.”

“What do you mean, doesn’t work like that?”

“Just doesn’t.“

Billy let it drop. It didn’t matter anyway. 

———

It was a few more days before they saw anyone else, a few more days of driving, a few more days of creamsicles melting orange and sticky down James’s hands, dripping from his fingers as Billy laughed. 

“You want me to drive?”

Billy leaned back in his seat. 

“Nah, I’m good.”

———

They met the others later that same day, Jimmy with his pleasant smile, stretched languidly in the the back of the truck, D’arcy beside him, snapping her gum idly. Billy didn’t know what to make of her. She didn’t seem to mind. 

James stayed where he always was, of course, draped across the passenger seat with his legs on the dashboard. If this were a ship, Billy wondered if James would be the figurehead. 

———

The truck was brighter now, smeared with neon paints, James’s handprints, Billy’s words, immortalized in yellow and blue against rusted metal. They pulled it over on the side of the road most nights, to sleep under the open sky. Billy had scavenged a few blankets to lay on the ground, but James would just throw himself down in the bare grass instead, laughing as dew clung to his skin like stars. 

———

Billy lost track of time slowly, hours into days into weeks. It was night right now, that was all he knew, all he cared to know. He watched the fire they had lit so long ago crackle and spark. D’arcy shifted slightly in her sleep, blonde hair a halo around her, still and almost vulnerable in the dark. Across from her, Jimmy snored, one arm slung over his face. Billy breathed in. James’s head was resting pressed to the side of his chest, forehead against the edges of his ribcage. Billy thought if he breathed too hard, maybe they’d both shatter. 

None of them seemed human; they were something else, made from soft smiles and congealed sugar and melted eyes. 

The fire faded to smoke and embers as he watched. He knew nothing lasted forever. He knew he would leave someday, that this was fleeting, transient, a flash in the dark. He really didn’t care.

**Author's Note:**

> This is loosely inspired by the Today music video, it’s one of my favorites and I just kind of wanted to try to capture the feeling the song gave me the first time I heard it and the first time I saw the vid.  
> This is blatantly indulgent given that everyone who knows me knows how much I dislike present day Billy Corgan, but I saw the Shiny and Oh so Bright tour a few weeks ago and it was actually bomb as hell except they cut D’arcy out of every backdrop video and yes I’m bitter but anyway here’s to better times love yall


End file.
